Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Dear Comic Art Fan,

The international cartooning community has rallied this week in defiance of the tragic terrorist attack on the Parisian offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which took the lives of 12 people including cartoonists Jean "Cabu" Cabut, Georges Wolinski, Philippe Honoré, and Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac. Many artists and fans worldwide have taken to social media with cartoons and photos to proclaim "Je suis Charlie" and show their pens, pencils, and brushes as their "weapon" of choice in combatting extremism and censorship. ComicsAlliance has several examples at the link...

My name is Len Gould and I've been collecting original comic art since the late 1990s. I've also been a member of the CFA-APA on and off for the last ten years or so as well. I'm a nostalgic collector at heart - chasing downs pages and stories that were meaningful to me as a kid. I'm always up for a deal so if you have anything on my want list hit me up, you never know.

2. Which piece in your gallery is your favorite?

The Mike Mayhew Rough Stuff cover featuring the Avengers Ladies. Mike really knocked this one out of the park and did a phenomenal job of representing the very early 80's Avengers Ladies. If you look in my gallery you can see the step-by-step creation of this masterpiece from the initial cartoony sketch through the detailed finished painting.

3. How long have you been collecting comic art and what prompted you to start?

My first page of comic art was a nice Don Heck page from Avengers #14. When I stumbled upon the page I had no real inkling that original comic art even existed. When I got this page it opened an entirely new hobby to me. With these all being one-of-a-kind pieces, I quickly got the itch and have been a collector ever since.

4. How do you display/store your collection at home?

There must be about 15 framed pieces hanging on my walls -- they tend to be cover or splash pieces although there are a couple of panel pages there. Everything else is stored in a flat file.

5. What are your top five most wanted original pages or commissions?

The big question! OK here we go:
1) ANY pages from What if? #29 (What if the Avengers defeated everyone)
2) ANY Butch Guice Birds of Prey pages from #28-30
3) A nice Todd McFarlane Spidey page featuring MJ
4) A Nice Neal Adams Avengers page
5) Lastly -- any pages from the 'Sniper" story in Fightin Army #128.
Thanks for any and all help!